The Vancouver Whitecaps and the New England Revolution played a “testy” game at Empire Field in front of 19,396 fans last Wednesday in a game that featured 9 booking’s of players and three (3) ejections; two (2) to Vancouver and one (1) to New England.
The match ended in a 1-1 draw which took them to extra time to determine the outcome.
Vancouver and New England survived an interesting game which was officiated by Referee Baldomero Toledo. Many attending were not too pleased in how he made the questionable calls who all came out to see some exciting MLS soccer.
Cautions and ejections seemed to be the call “of the day” as he nailed the teams for 6 in the first half alone. Four went to Vancouver and two to New England.
The calls that were made included the sending off of Gershon Koffie at the half for a late tackle to a New England opponent as the teams battled to a scoreless draw.
The first half did produce some fine soccer as the Caps and the Revolution pressed their opponents defense with brilliant runs on of the ball on the wings and flanks with the crosses just missing the heads of the strikers.
Vancouver did however carry the play in the early going as Camilo came close to opening the scoring with two great chances as his shot just carried over the bar with goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth coming up huge against Vancouver.
Atiba Harris the other front runner on attack for Vancouver also had some great chances only to be stopped by Shuttleworth as the Cap’s could have had an early lead of at least a possible two goals.
New England had their share of chances in the match as they tested tender Jay Nolly when Stephen McCarthy sent one wide of the left post.
The game remained scoreless another outstanding player for the Revolution was Sainey Nyassi with scoring chances as well one shot had Nolly getting a hand on the shot causing it to deflect over the bar in the 39th minute.
The ejection of Gershon Koffie in the 45th minute had the Whitecaps down to ten men to start the second half.
In the second half with Vancouver playing with 10 men New England took control of the game sending their players in waves while the defense that continued strong play, along with the solid goalkeeping of Jay Nolly to keep the game at nil.
In the 56th minute Vancouver came on the attack and it paid off as Camilo took a long ball on the flank cut in and was taken down in the box by a Revolution defender and the referee awarded a penalty kick as the return of Eric Hassli who came in as a sub to start the second half.
He did manage to convert the PK to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead in 56th minute.
But again he gave the Caps coaching staff problems as he celebrated the he took off his jersey and threw it into the crowd. He had a second one underneath the first causing him to be ejected for the celebration after being carded earlier leaving Vancouver down to 9 men on the pitch.
New England took full advantage of the situation as they started to press for the equalizer as Vancouver played with two men under the required 11 man roster.
The Cap’s played with nine men for 23 minutes as the Revolution pressed as the caps continued their strong defensive play.
Revolution player A.J. Soares was red carded in the 74th minute for which they were down to 10 men to Vancouver’s 9.
New England thought they had scored the equalizer in the 84th minute when Stephen McCarthy beat Nolly from the top of the box, but the linesman (on the far side) ruled the goal offside so the score remained at 1-0 for the Vancouver Whitecaps.
In Injury time the Revolution finally got the game tying goal in the 93rd minute as substitute Ilija Stolica headed home the cross Zack Schilawski past a diving Nolly to tie the game at 1-1.
The Whitecaps return home on April 16th to host Chivas USA at 4:00pm.
The Caps man of the match was defender Alain Rochet on this day well deserved.
